Rep. Paul Ryan

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March 31, 2015 | The Campaign Legal Center has filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission against four 2016 presidential hopefuls, accusing them of actively organizing and running early presidential bids without abiding by federal rules related to fundraising limits and disclosure. The group’s complaints against Republicans Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum and Democrat Martin O’Malley allege they all are…

March 30, 2015 | This story was cross-posted with the Guardian. The dinner invitations that dropped into the inboxes of political donors last week proudly boasted a list of guests whose names have already become very familiar in the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum are among nine confirmed speakers for…

March 23, 2015 | This story was cross-posted at The Daily Beast. It was a cold winter night in Washington, D.C., not long after President George W. Bush won a second term, and the mood at the upscale Italian restaurant was downright celebratory. The most prominent guest was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but his table also boasted a…

February 19, 2015 | A federal investigation into events surrounding the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign in Iowa is ongoing and “making progress,” the Des Moines Register reported today. During a brief hearing that included federal prosecutors and the attorney representing a former Iowa state senator who has pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance rules in connection with the campaign, prosecutors said they are…

January 30, 2015 | If writing checks to politicians and political causes is any indicator of how well a team will do in a Super Bowl, the Patriots should start dusting off this year’s Vince Lombardi trophy — but it’s not going to be a blowout. Really, it would come down to a battle between the owners, and it would be close…

January 14, 2015 | Wall Street did its part to make 2014 the most expensive midterm election ever, outpacing its 2010 total and once again putting the bulk of its financial muscle behind GOP candidates and groups. Donors from the securities and investment industry, otherwise known as Wall Street, contributed a total of $184 million to candidates, parties and outside…

December 5, 2014 | The 2014 election might have been the most expensive midterm ever, and it might have seen some of the most extravagant spending on wall-to-wall advertising ever — but when Election Day had come and gone, there was a surprising amount of money still sitting on the table. The Service Employees International Union PAC reported yesterday…

November 18, 2014 | The Ron Paul presidential campaign of 2012 is not over. In fact, the legal entity that controlled the campaign had $576,000 in the bank on Sept. 30 — a substantial sum for a White House bid that effectively ended two-and-a-half years ago. Leftover campaign cash can be used for a variety of purposes, but since August,…

November 3, 2014 | Six of the top 10 House candidates drawing money from Wall Street in the 2014 cycle are Republicans, showing the industry is sticking with its recent preference for the GOP. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has received more money in campaign contributions from the securities and investment industry than any other House candidate this cycle.…

October 31, 2014 | This story is cross-posted at TIME.com With just a few days remaining in the first quarter of 2014, Mary Landrieu did something generous: The embattled Democratic senator from Louisiana, herself in the midst of an exceedingly tough re-election race, used her leadership PAC to give $5,000 to the campaign of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who…

September 17, 2014 | In the run-up to the 2012 elections, Republican candidates spent more on political contributions than their Democratic counterparts for the first time in a decade, transferring $54 million from candidate committees to parties or other candidates. On the Democratic side, similar transfers peaked at $76.3 million in the 2008 cycle, after growing steadily since 2002. Though…

June 17, 2014 | Since the beginning of the 2014 campaign cycle last year, 14 donors — running the gamut from a hedge fund manager to a gay rights activist to a little-known Salt Lake City venture capitalist — have given $100,000 or more to President Barack Obama’s avowedly un-campaign committee, Organizing for Action. Another 26 have ponied up…

May 5, 2014 | Some cracks are showing in the conservative movement’s money machine in Nebraska. The GOP primary race for Nebraska’s open Senate seat has attracted nearly $2 million dollars in outside spending — a lot of scratch for a state with an inexpensive media market. Four outside spending groups dedicated solely to this race have emerged in the last…

May 2, 2014 | A patch of coastal North Carolina might seem like an unusual place to wage a political battle over the future of Israel. But Rep. Walter B. Jones‘ (R-N.C.) long record of isolationist foreign policy votes has attracted over $1 million in outside spending to his congressional district, where his seat was once considered “extremely safe.”In a twist on the…

April 9, 2014 | Shaun McCutcheon's lead attorney scoffs at the notion that super JFCs and PACs will proliferate with the overall contribution limits now in the dustbin. He has some experience, but he also has skeptics.

March 12, 2014 | It's hard to sort out lobbyists' motivations for making campaign contributions. But the top recipients of their donations so far this cycle are a bit of a surprise: Top Republican leadership and at-risk Senate Democrats.

January 28, 2014 | State of the Union -- 9 p.m. tonight. But Obama's list of 2014 priorities may sound a lot like last year's roster, due in part to a deadlocked Congress that produced a historic year of inaction.

January 15, 2014 | In anticipation of the Supreme Court's ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation have teamed up to look at the deep-pocketed donors who could give even more if the justices strike down another limit on the amount of money in U.S. politics.

November 17, 2013 | With talks of soda taxes, GMO food labeling and now a potential FDA ban on trans fats, the food and beverage industry has been playing defense on several fronts. As the spotlight on what's inside America's food grows, so too does the industry's political spending. In this week's Politiquizz, we ask who in Congress the industry favors most.

October 29, 2013 | Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) are charged with trying to negotiate a compromise on the budget -- no small task with the divide between the two parties these days. But we've found some common ground in their campaign finance history -- answer our quiz and you could win a CRP prize!

October 24, 2013 | While the company said it had no position on linking government funding with Obamacare defunding, it went to bat for tying an increase in the debt ceiling to a 10-year debt reduction plan.

October 22, 2013 | A joint analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Washington Post shows that business interests played a key role in helping elect lawmakers who rejected their plea to raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown.

September 5, 2013 | Members of Congress spend much of their time chasing campaign cash and struggling to boost their war chests to fight off the next rival. And for a variety of reasons, an increasing number find themselves with flush bank accounts when their congressional careers are over, keeping them high on their former colleagues' call lists.

June 25, 2013 | It's still early, but the PACs of several prominent conservative groups and politicians have already piled up or given away significant cash, and in some cases are much better armed going into this election cycle than they were two years ago in the run-up to 2012.

June 17, 2013 | As firefighters in Western states continue to battle wildfires, lobbyists in Washington are fighting their own battle over how to handle fires like the Black Forest blaze in the future.

May 7, 2013 | All members of Congress get checks from outside their districts or states. But in the 2012 election cycle, at least 66 senators and House members relied on out-of-state donors for more than half of their campaign funds.

April 9, 2013 | Leadership PACs are an extension of a politician's brand. Set up as auxiliaries to traditional campaign committees, they're traditionally thought of as ways for politicians to earn goodwill by passing campaign cash on to other party members -- bestowing gifts on up-and-comers in exchange for loyalty down the road, or offering tribute to party higher-ups. But in an analysis of leadership PACs, OpenSecrets.org found that of the 25 leadership PACs that spent more than $1 million in the last election cycle, just five of them gave more than 50 percent of their money to other candidates.

April 4, 2013 | The National Association for Gun Rights -- a group to the right of the NRA -- has been stirring controversy with attacks on Republicans. As it happens, the group has strong ties to both Rand and Ron Paul, OpenSecrets Blog has found.

March 13, 2013 | Paul Ryan's latest budget, like his previous ones, shakes up Medicare, potentially creating more customers for health insurers. The insurance industry has been Ryan's top contributor over the course of his career (after retired people).

February 26, 2013 | EMILY's List, one of the biggest Democratic fundraising groups in the 2012 cycle, gets a new national press secretary from Priorities USA Action, the pro-Obama super PAC. Sheldon Adelson sues over being called "foul-mouthed." And CPAC warms up for its confab next month, but leaves Garden State Gov. Chris Christie off the invitation list.

January 28, 2013 | Sen. Tom Harkin's retirement has opened a door for the GOP in Iowa in 2014, while Mitch McConnell is shoring up his cash and his allies for his own re-election fight. Meanwhile, in the House, Cantor might be eyeing the speakership.

December 7, 2012 | Priorities USA Action brought in $15 million in the weeks before the election, and after the vote still had $4 million in the bank. The Adelsons send $23 million to American Crossroads in the final days. A union-funded group spends $1 million against Scott Brown just before the vote. And FreedomWorks for America picks up another $5 million-plus from the mysterious Specialty Group.

November 13, 2012 | The freshly declared victory of the woman who will be the first openly bisexual member of Congress shows the strength of gay rights and women's groups. Also, the evolution of Paul Ryan as a national figure, as seen through campaign finance data.

November 1, 2012 | Flood insurance is a popular topic for lobbying; the group Protect the Harvest isn't what it seems; and Sam Zell, philanthropist and Republican donor (but you might not want to sell him your newspaper company).

October 16, 2012 | Tonight's debate will be closely watched to see whether the president delivers a more energetic performance. But there are other reasons to tune in, including keeping an eye on whether the candidates' responses reflect the positions of their campaign contributors.

September 26, 2012 | Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich comes to Rep. Todd Akin's side, hosting a fundraiser for the Senate candidate who was scorned for his comments about rape and abortion last month. Also, Scott Green straddles the world of lobbying and (professional) refereeing as the lockout drags on.

September 20, 2012 | A new poll finds Democrats more concerned than Republicans about donations from corporations, unions and the wealthy; Restore Our Future pours money into Wisconsin and Michigan; and where Washington sports team owners put their political investments.

September 19, 2012 | It may look like a network of misfiring neurons, but our visualization, done in collaboration with Newsweek & the Daily Beast, actually shows the connections between shadow money groups.

September 5, 2012 | After a week of political pageantry and Republican politics in Tampa Bay, the spotlight turns to Democrats this week, as they kick off their own party convention in the battleground state of North Carolina. Readers of this blog know all too well what that means: It's party time.

August 31, 2012 | Mitt Romney didn't fly into Tampa until Thursday, but meanwhile more than 100 members of his family, close and far-flung, took over the local Marriott just across the street from the hall where Romney accepted the GOP presidential nomination last night.

August 24, 2012 | Romney announces his plans to change the American energy industry -- just as the oil and gas industry injects a huge flood of cash into his campaign, rockers blast Paul Ryan, but don't put their money where their mouth is, and California considers public financing of campaigns.

August 22, 2012 | Two new lobbying registrations this week have ties to Native American tribes, according to Politico. The National Indian Gaming Association and Chickasaw Nation Industries have officially hired Ben Nighthorse Consultants, Inc. and Sprit Rock Consulting, respectively, to represent their interests in the federal government.

August 16, 2012 | Lobbying on the DREAM Act made strange allies on Capitol Hill. A new poll shows Mitt Romney ahead in some key battleground states. And the DCCC hits Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.) on Medicare.

August 15, 2012 | This year's long, expensive and often unpredictable primary season is drawing to a close, but could still have some surprises in store. Races in Wisconsin and Florida pitted Tea Party favorites against members of the Republican old guard, and candidates are divided not just by philosophy but by fundraising style and super PAC support.

August 13, 2012 | Two super PACs focused on a handful of races and advised by the same lawyer-lobbyist have kept most of their donors' names secret by drawing all or nearly all of their funds from tax-exempt groups that don't have to disclose the source of their money.

August 13, 2012 | The biggest supporter of Paul Ryan's leadership PAC the last several years has been a New York City hedgefund run by a billionaire known for his support of the GOP and gay marriage; Forget about the liberal media, Bob Kerrey finds friends in the rural media.

August 6, 2012 | Americans for Job Security targets Eric Hovde in its first ad of the cycle, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 oppose American Future Fund's efforts to raise funds with candidates and the 2012 'Campaign' goes Hollywood.

August 2, 2012 | The Internet's K Street presence becomes more formidable with the launching of a trade group for the likes of Google and Facebook. And -- whoa -- a new smartphone app for a first look at who Romney picks to be his running mate?

July 19, 2012 | TCF Financial's PAC has given away $105,500 in this election cycle, mostly to the usual assortment of candidates and other committees. But $25,000 -- nearly a quarter of its donations -- went to Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers' very conservative nonprofit that spent millions targeting Democrats in 2010.

July 19, 2012 | The veepstakes is more art than science. Mindful of the fact that Mitt Romney could choose a running mate who's not prominent on anyone's radar screen, we bring you a list of sometimes-mentioned possibilities.

July 16, 2012 | Of all the potential GOP vice presidential candidates who might -- or might not -- be on Mitt Romney's short list, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal might present the biggest contrast with Romney himself.

July 12, 2012 | After being elected to the Senate just two years ago, Ayotte is in the running as a possible veep candidate. She's one of Sarah Palin's "mamma grizzlies," and has attracted lots of checks from other politicians' leadership PACs as well as from insurance and financial firms.

July 6, 2012 | After riding an anti-establishment Tea Party wave into office in 2010, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has gone from being a relatively unknown state representative to a potential vice presidential pick in just two short years. Although some have reported that GOP candidate Mitt Romney is not vetting Rubio, the campaign insists it is considering the 41-year-old Florida native for the VP slot.

June 19, 2012 | On Wednesday, the Center for Responsive Politics will host a conference at the National Press Club on the growing role of groups like these -- politically active non-profit organizations -- in elections.

June 13, 2012 | The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously Monday night to allow individuals to make political contributions through text messages, providing yet another potential stream of money for national campaigns and political action committees.

February 21, 2012 | Super PACs supporting presidential candidates continue to take in six- and seven-figure contributions from individuals who also have given the legal maximum to the candidate's campaign committee.

January 31, 2012 | Sixteen lobbyists raised nearly $2.2 million to aid the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2011, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

January 25, 2012 | Who's been funding the presidential super PACs since last June is largely a mystery, and will remain so until next week. But how the groups have been spending their money is a different story, thanks to legal requirements that expenditures over a certain threshhold be disclosed quickly.
And the super PACs, just like the candidates they support or oppose, have shown deep differences in how they're allocating their money to get their messages across, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the expenditures.

December 9, 2011 | Welcome to the latest installment of OpenSecrets.org Mailbag, where we answer your burning questions about the role of money in politics, political influence and the work we do here at OpenSecrets.org.

November 22, 2011 | According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, 19 current members of Congress reported holdings in Goldman Sachs during 2010. Whether by coincidence or not, most of these 19 Goldman Sachs investors in Congress are more powerful or more wealthy than their peers, or both.

November 16, 2011 | Chicago hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who served as one of President Barack Obama's top fund-raisers four years ago, says he won't be backing Obama again this election. Instead, he'll be fueling an on-again, off-again love affair with the GOP and raising money to help elect Mitt Romney.

November 9, 2011 | Getting under the hood of overall spending patterns for House campaigns reveals some dramatic differences in 2010. The search for explanations is challenging, but may be important for 2012 and future races.

November 4, 2011 | The first check-up in more than seven years was a painful one for the Federal Election Commission. At a long-overdue oversight hearing on Thursday the House Administration Committee, which oversees FEC, insisted upon greater transparency within the commission and greater clarity in its enforcement of election laws.

October 24, 2011 | Earlier this month, a Florida nonprofit corporation by the name of Deep Sea Burials, Inc., filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission forming a super PAC. The filing, however, contained several inconsistencies.

October 4, 2011 | A new analysis by Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center and the Center for Responsive Politics shows that 55 of the 75 individuals that donated to Restore Our Future also contributed to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign committee. These double-dipping donors represent almost three-quarters of all of Restore Our Future's individual donors and account for more than half of the money it's raised.

August 25, 2011 | Three dozen members of Congress held stock in Apple in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. That makes it one of the most popular assets among all congressional investors.

August 16, 2011 | Fresh off his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign as the Constitution Party candidate in Colorado, ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo has founded his own super PAC. The group, which is known as the American Legacy Alliance, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Friday.

July 29, 2011 | At least 27 percent of the $582,100 Santorum raised through June 30 has come from residents of the Keystone State, according to a preliminary analysis of campaign finance filings by the Center for Responsive Politics.

July 28, 2011 | Fairsearch.org will not be giving Google a +1. To combat what they see as "the Google problem," Fairsearch.org hired lobbyists for the first time and spent 80,000 lobbying during the second quarter on behalf of "competition in the search market," according to a review of lobbying disclosure reports by the Center for Responsive Politics.

July 19, 2011 | Excluding her airfare to Israel, Palin, a Republican, spent more than $12,000 from her political action committee, SarahPAC, to fund her journey. That total includes a $5,794 tour by Sar-El Tours & Travel, which promises customized "biblically oriented journeys through the Holy Land."

July 15, 2011 | Today, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign released the names of 244 bundlers, which the campaign dubbed "volunteer fund-raisers," who collected at least $50,000 each on behalf of the president's re-election.

July 12, 2011 | Cliff Asness, the founding and managing partner of hedge fund AQR Capital, and Rutgers University professor Susan Feinberg may have irreconcilable differences about a $350 bottle of wine at Washington D.C.'s Bistro Bis, but they once found common ground in the campaign of President Barack Obama. Furthermore, during the 2010 election cycle, Cliff and his wife Laurel Asness also donated $7,666 to the leadership PAC of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), with whom he was spotted sharing an expensive meal by Feinberg.

June 20, 2011 | Several congressmen were eager to sever all ties with the companies responsible for one of the biggest environmental disasters in the nation's history. OpenSecrets Blog previously reported that high-ranking members of congress dumped their BP assets in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year. And another analysis of personal financial disclosure documents released last week shows that many also divested their stocks for Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that BP operated.

June 17, 2011 | Super PACs, a new breed of political action committee that may raise unlimited sums of money to fuel political advertisements known as independent expenditures, are subject to one major condition: they must disclose their donors.
Or are they?

June 16, 2011 | Regulators at the Federal Election Commission deadlocked 3-3 Wednesday on a vote to re-open public discussion of proposed rules regarding disclosure in political advertisements by corporations and labor unions.

June 10, 2011 | Welcome to the latest installment of OpenSecrets.org Mailbag, where we answer your burning questions about the role of money in politics, political influence and the work we do here at OpenSecrets.org.

May 27, 2011 | Although a variety of factors likely went into each senator's decision to vote down the Ryan budget, interestingly, retirees -- who often lean Republican in their political contributions, as OpenSecrets Blog has previously noted -- are among the top donors to all four Republican senators who voted against the bill.

May 17, 2011 | One of the rules of operating a super PAC is that the group must be independent: Its spending cannot be done in coordination with any candidate or political party. But a new super PAC, launched last week by GOP super lawyer James Bopp, appears to be pushing the envelope on that, and other, prohibitions.

April 8, 2011 | Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) released his budget proposal Tuesday calling to cut spending by $5.8 trillion over the next ten years. Ryan himself is actually one of the top Republican recipients of political action committee contributions from the health sector.

February 24, 2011 | The 2nd annual OpenSecrets.org Money-in-Politics Oscars returns today to bestow awards on Academy Awards nominees who best emblematize the cozy relationship between the cinematic and political elite.

January 27, 2011 | Many political candidates in Washington and on the campaign trail had plenty to say about oil company villainy during the 2010 election cycle. But some campaigns and political committees had little problem padding the profits of two embattled companies in particular -- BP and Citgo.

January 19, 2011 | Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, elected chairman of the Republican National Committee last Friday after seven contentious rounds of balloting, is expected to help remedy the party's dismal fund-raising operation. But at least personally, the rising Republican star is hardly a major political cash contributor, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

October 4, 2010 | Not all congressional districts are created equal when it comes to the amount of campaign contributions flowing to candidates. Sometimes, the discrepancy between an incumbent's war chest and that of a challenger is only thousands of dollars. Sometimes, it's millions. And in many congressional districts, incumbents are blowing their competition out of the water.

September 30, 2010 | This fall, Republicans need a net gain of 39 seats to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Some of the seats most likely to flip from the Democratic column to Republican control stem from the retirements of sitting Democratic incumbents.
And when it comes to competing for these open seats, Republicans own a financial advantage.

September 27, 2010 | Ahead of the November election, top 20 House beneficiaries of the people and political action committees associated with the finance, insurance and real estate sector have together collected more than $16.2 million from Wall Street interests since January 2009. Meanwhile, the Senate candidates and sitting senators to receive the most from Wall Street interests raked in more than $41.3 million since January 2005 -- the beginning of their six-year election cycle.

August 20, 2010 | "If the Campaign Legal Center had infinite resources, we might file complaints in this area out of principal -- to force the Federal Election Commission to either acknowledge that these groups are breaking the law or to claim to the public that the Commission doesn't view the ads as candidate ads," Paul Ryan, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center told OpenSecrets Blog.

July 6, 2010 | Not only does OpenSecrets.org keep track of the individual companies and organizations lobbying the federal government, but we also keep track of the lobbying numbers of entire industries. Some of the top industries lobbying congress include oil and gas, electric utilities, and the education industries.

May 11, 2010 | Last Friday, the Federal Election Commission issued an advisory opinion clearing the way for so-called soft money to flow into congressional redistricting battles. According to the new FEC opinion, money spent on redistricting efforts is not "in connection with" a federal election -- thereby exempting such funds from the limits imposed by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 20002.

April 28, 2010 | Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia leaned toward the microphone and looked down at lawyer James Bopp who stood beneath him. "You can't run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known," Scalia scolded. "Threats should be moved against vigorously, but just because there can be criminal activity doesn't mean that you have to eliminate a procedure that is otherwise perfectly reasonable."

April 28, 2010 | In a high-profile legal challenge, the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow will tackle questions about First Amendment freedom of speech rights, the nature of signing petitions for ballot measures, the public's right to know and the government's interests in preserving the integrity of the election process.

April 9, 2010 | WHOSE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?: The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim and Arthur Delaney spend more than 10,000 words examining the Democratic factions within the U.S. House of Representatives in their latest dispatch. The piece explores the significance played by progressive donors and outside groups like MoveOn.org and labor unions in electing new, conservative members to the House -- and the tensions that arise from this when trying to advance progressive legislation.

March 30, 2010 | Until Friday, it was widely held to be illegal for a federal political action committee to accept contributions in excess of $5,000. Roughly two months earlier, though, the abortion rights advocacy organization EMILY's List created a new independent expenditure group using one massive contribution. Did EMILY's List jump the gun?

December 3, 2009 | Insurance giant AIG's political clout is waning as fast as its finances. Since its near-collapse and government bailout last fall, AIG disbanded its lobbying team. It hasn't donated a dollar from its political action committee this year. Furthermore, contributions from individual AIG employees since January are merely a sliver of what they've been in previous cycles -- although a few notable politicians retain financial or political ties to the embattled company. Among these lawmakers is Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who pledged to return contributions from AIG employees who got post-bailout bonuses but has nonetheless retained tens of thousands of dollars from them given before the bailout.

October 16, 2009 | An initial Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found that sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives raised $48.2 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2009, based on the 336 reports we have in. The mean amount these lawmakers raised was $143,640, and the median amount was $126,680.

September 9, 2009 | If the Supreme Court is currently the dam blocking the flow of unlimited corporate funds used for political expenditures, today's re-hearing of the campaign finance case Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission indicated that the justices may be poised to put at least a few holes in that barricade.

July 9, 2009 | Over the past three weeks, Capital Eye has contacted members of five Capitol Hill committees responsible for drafting health care reform legislation this summer. Here are their responses (and non-responses) and the money they're collecting from various industries.

June 25, 2009 | Here's a cool tool that brings together data from various parts of OpenSecrets.org to show how much money each current lawmaker has raised from various health-related industries and the health sector overall since 1989 (including President Obama's haul).

February 12, 2009 | The close ties between Rep. John Murtha and a Washington lobbying firm raided by the FBI have put the powerful Pennsylvania Democrat under greater scrutiny. The lobbyists at PMA Group have been Murtha's fifth most generous campaign donor over time, but he is just one of 284 members of the 111th Congress who have collected money from the firm, which specializes in securing federal earmarks for its clients. In total, PMA Group's employees and its political action committee have given current members of Congress $3.4 million since 1989.

September 23, 2008 | The last time Congress seriously debated how to regulate the financial industry, the result was legislation that allowed the nation's largest banks to get even larger and take risks that had been prohibited since the Great Depression. A look back at that debate, which was over the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, reveals that campaign contributions may have influenced the votes of politicians who, a decade later, are now grappling with the implosion of the giant banks they helped to foster.

September 12, 2008 | Uncle Sam bailed out Freddie Mac and the company's twin sister, Fannie Mae, this week, and the next in line in the Wall Street family to get a helping hand might just be Lehman Brothers. Executives at the struggling investment bank are looking to sell the company with assistance from the government--and fast--as its stock plunges. Although the government isn't expected to completely bail out Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, the company has built a strong financial relationship with politicians over the years and coincidentally ranks fourth in the largest contributors in the race for the White House.

September 11, 2008 | When the federal government announced two months ago that it would be seizing mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CRP looked at how much money members of Congress had collected since 1989 from the companies. On Sunday the government proceeded with the takeover and we've returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July we posted the top 25).

August 26, 2008 | For every star-studded concert and poker tournament when the sun goes down over the Rockies, there are dozens of mundane corporate events during the day that resemble what goes on in Washington nearly every other day of the year. Such was the scene Tuesday at a daytime event sponsored by the Financial Services Roundtable, an influential alliance of the nation's biggest banks, insurers, mortgage lenders, investment advisors, credit card companies.

April 10, 2008 | Capital Eye chatted this week with Paul Ryan, program director for the FEC watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, about how a compliance fund works, why a candidate who accepts public funding needs one and what this means for campaign contributors.

January 17, 2008 | The game of politics can stall important bills, kill controversial amendments and bring the legislative system to a halt. But what happens at the start of an election year when a partisan squabble essentially shuts down the federal agency charged with overseeing—and enforcing—campaign finance laws?

November 3, 2004 | Almost as soon as Election Day concluded, one thing was certain: Money won big in the 2004 elections.
In 95 percent of House races and 91 percent of Senate races that had been decided by mid-day today, the candidate who spent the most money won, according to a post-election analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The findings are based on figures reported Oct. 13 to the Federal Election Commission.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks,
contact the Center.

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